– cites bauxite dust as main cause

FOLLOWING strong recommendations from the Bridges Global Medical Mission to establish a respiratory illness clinic, management of the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) is currently selecting doctors to be trained in spirometry, so that the residents of Linden can benefit from correct diagnoses, treatment and education of their respiratory diseases.
The mission is presently on a visit to the LHC and its medical practitioners held a two-day respiratory clinic, which saw the number of patients that visited last year being doubled. Speaking on behalf of the mission was Professor Sharon Armstead, who is a respiratory therapist and a professor at the Texas State University. She, along with 15 of her students, attended to scores of patients on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Speaking to the media, she opined that the bauxite dust results in the continuous increase in persons experiencing respiratory problems in Linden. Armstead, who is also an asthmatic, said when she visits Linden, she has to go on special medication to be able to breathe. In this regard, Armstead urged the LHC to urgently establish the spirometry clinic which will enable the patients to be correctly diagnosed. “I believe Linden needs its own clinic; we can speak to the volume of patients that responded today… having that clinic here is priceless; we must have our own, we must do this for Linden…. I really want to see the hospital open up the clinic, if we can’t have it every day, at least once a month,” she said.

She related that in her experience coming to Guyana, many patients are diagnosed with asthma and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and are treated for these diseases, but never underwent spirometry testing and only through that testing can one be accurately diagnosed. Once diagnosed, the patients can then be correctly treated, which will avoid them from making several return trips to the emergency room. The clinic will also provide the needed education and sensitization on how self-management can be done.
While a spirometry department was established in 2016 at the LHC, with modern spirometry machines, there is currently a nurse manning the department but no doctor; hence, she can only handle minor cases but cannot diagnose any patient. The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the LHC said that doctors will now be trained to man the department so that the clinic will be reopened to its full capacity at the shortest possible time.

In addition, the Bridges Medical Mission and the Canadian Spirometry teams that visit annually also noted the high prevalence of respiratory illnesses in Linden. They had also called for increased capacity at the spirometry department.

Over the years, thousands of Lindeners have shown indications of suffering from respiratory illnesses. This motivated Bosai’s Mineral Group Guyana (BMGG) to install dust collectors on two of the four kilns (chimneys where dust particles are emitted into the atmosphere). While this move has brought some relief to the residents, it has not completely brought an end to the problem.